Suzanne Haley, of Briarwood Elementary School, was stabbed in the right calf by part of a desk during Monday’s storm. Despite her injury, she said she’s thankful to be alive and that no one was killed.
A heroic teacher who shielded her students from Oklahoma’s monster tornado is recovering in the hospital after the metal leg of a desk speared her in the calf.
Suzanne Haley says she’s grateful to be alive, and that the incredible injury she sustained isn’t life-threatening.
“It didn’t hit the bone. It just went through the muscle,” she told from her hospital bed.
Haley, a paraprofessional at Briarwood Elementary School in suburban Oklahoma City, said she and another teacher immediately rushed the children under desks and into the corner of the classroom as the twister bore down Monday.
It was the last day of school, and the dozen students in her first-grade special education class were eager to start their summer vacations. Also inside the classroom were Haley’s two young daughters.
But there was no escaping the 2-mile-wide tornado.
“We could hear it approaching. It sounded like a jet ... coming closer and closer,” Haley later told.
As the storm intensified, she and the students began praying. The roof blew off and a wall crashed down on their bodies.
At some point, the leg of a desk impaled Haley’s right calf.
Amid the chaos, Haley said, she could feel pressure on her leg. She asked one of her daughters whether something was stuck on it.
“She screamed that it was in my leg,” Haley said.
“Amazingly, by the grace of God, I kept it together,” she added.
In about 10 minutes after the storm passed, rescue workers arrived to pull the children and teachers from the rubble.
Everyone survived — a huge relief after reports that seven children died inside nearby Plaza Towers Elementary School.
But it wasn’t until Haley was at the hospital and the anesthesia wore off that she said she “lost it.”
A day later, with her leg fully bandaged, she’s gained perspective on the terrifying disaster.
“I wouldn’t have changed anything about it,” she said. “I knew I had to be there and stay calm for the kids’ sake.”
Leg to leg